Re: LYME DISEASE: Everything you should know
- From: pmerv@xxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: 24 Jun 2005 16:49:49 -0700
Few disagree that Lyme disease is usually curable in its early stages,
but because many doctors utilize the CDC surveillance definition as a
standard for clinical diagnosis, contrary to the CDC's own
instructions, many people are not diagnosed or treated early. According
to a CALDA survey, 50% of the respondents had their diagnosis delayed
an average of 4 years through misuse of the CDC criteria. This means
that many people develop an entrenched form of the disease that resists
treatment, as the disease-causing spirochetes, Borrelia burgdorferi,
sequester themselves in the brain, cartilage, vitreous, and other sites
where they are protected from antibiotics and from host immune attack.
Short-term treatments (one month or less) may produce temporarily
relief from symptoms, but when treatment is stopped, symptoms quickly
recur as sequestered bacteria come out of hiding and begin replicating
again.
Because the medical community has been indoctrinated by biased
information from the academic research centers at Yale, New York
Medical College and the New England Medical Center, and believe that
short-term treatment protocols are sufficient to achieve
microbiological cure, patients presenting with persistent symptoms
after short-term treatments have been labeled as "Post-Lyme Disease
Syndrome," (PLDS), and dismissed, ridiculed, accused of hypochondriasis
or Munchausen's disease, and given alternative disease labels such as
fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, multiple sclerosis, etc.
Although peer-reviewed research has proven persistence of infection
despite antibiotic treatment, and clinical trials have shown that many
persistently ill people improve with more treatment, more treatment is
frequently denied, not only by the treating physician, but also by
insurance companies protecting their bottom line. Sick and disabled
patients who cannot find a doctor to treat them are often blamed and
ridiculed for their own condition. Lacking the science to prove patient
advocates wrong, detractors resort to personal attacks and
misrepresentations to make their case. Doctors practicing according to
the more liberal diagnostic and treatment guidelines are also
disproportionately subjected to investigation and disciplinary action
by state medical boards, illustrating the bias in government agencies
in spite of the lack of conclusive scientific support for their
position.
Fortunately, several nonprofit organizations and over a hundred
nationwide patient groups have sprung up to help patients find
physicians who will at least entertain the notion that Lyme disease may
be a persistent infection. The internet has greatly enhanced the
ability of these groups to reach many individuals who would otherwise
be isolated and unable to access accurate information. Patient groups
are engaged in educational and fundraising efforts as well as
legislative efforts to protect their treating physicians from
persecution and to force insurance companies to pay for treatments
prescribed by their physicians.
The public is ill-served by the unscientific and irrational denial in
the academic medical community - whose research is paid for by our tax
dollars - of evidence that does not fit their paradigm. If they were
doing their job correctly, much of the controversy would evaporate.
Very ill and disabled people are being sacrificed in what amounts to a
turf war over an ever-shrinking R&D budget. Unless medical researchers
abandon politics and return to science - hardly likely in times of
tight money - we may expect more of the same.
.
- References:
- LYME DISEASE: Everything you should know
- From: Chuck
- LYME DISEASE: Everything you should know
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